Amy takes on the Minimum Wage Challenge
Amy takes on the Minimum Wage Challenge
28th August 2019.
In advance of National Living Wage Week I decided to take on the Minimum Wage Challenge. That is, to live for a week on minimum wage, blog about my experiences, and encourage others to take the challenge for Living Wage Week this November.
This idea isn’t new. On July 24th 2014, across the pond in the USA, politicians and law makers were encouraged to spend that week attempting live on a budget of $77 to highlight the near impossibility of subsisting on the lowest legal pay scale. There’s even a virtual game you can play, if you’d rather not physically eat the pot noodles yourself.
I work part time (outside the home), so my wage contributes to 1/3 of our bills and my husband shoulders the rest. I worked out, very roughly, that after contributing to our shared bills and forking out for my own… I’d have… £10 a week left, if I was paid minimum wage.
Hmm. Ok I thought, I’ll give it a go, and use this £10 a week as a budget for food outside the home, commuting and social activities.
I decided to start the challenge immediately. I have a short commute, so I didn’t think that fact that I’d filled up my car with petrol already this week was cheating too much. I paid £2.50 to park, that left £8.50 for the rest of the week. Ah, I’d also bought some biscuits for the office on the way in, they were £1.20. Oh and I’d picked up lunch at the same time, which was pretty cheap at £2.50. Still, that only left £3.80 for the rest of the week.
I then remembered that I’d also bought a bottle of whisky for someone who had done me a good turn. Damn it. I had failed in the first ten minutes of the first day, and was feeling a bit perturbed about how flippantly I could make money disappear; what a luxury to be able to be so extravagant.
Becci suggested that the challenge should be something more positive. Instead of highlighting the difficulty of trying to live a fulfilling life on minimum wage, focus on what can be done to encourage the idea of being paid enough to live on. When you put it like that, it seems less of a benefit, and more of a human right, doesn’t it?
11th November 2019
Boo are not only an accredited Living Wage Foundation employer, but a member of the steering group for National Living Wage Week – the first day of which, is today.
We believe the right thing is to pay the Real Living Wage, and that thousands more employers could do so comfortably. Not only could this change someone’s life for the better, but the investment in that person is likely to make them feel more motivated, valued and loyal when they are at work. Take care of your team and they will take care of your customers.
We are holding a meet up at Little Bolton Town Hall this Wednesday (13th) at 2pm for champions of the Real Living Wage, and anybody else who is interested in this campaign. It’s absolutely free to attend.
If you are not an employer, or even if you are an employer and can’t yet afford to increase the pay of your lowest paid staff without genuinely threatening the financial security of your business, then you are still most welcome to join us. Together we can find some way that we can ALL promote fairer pay for those that are paid the least.
For example:
- If you can’t yet pay the Real Living Wage, can you commit to working towards it?
- If you can’t uplift the salary of all of your staff, what about just starting with the lowest paid?
- Can you make sure your supply chain contains Living Wage employers?
- Can you make choices about who you shop with?
- Can you be a Real Living Wage ally, and use your networks and platforms to promote it?
- What small good thing CAN you do?
Take a look at the Living Wage Foundation website, to find out who pays it, and why: https://www.livingwage.org.uk/
If you would like to come and join the discussion, here is the Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/living-wage-employer-meetup-tickets-77269981595
